Could Nike and Tiger have built the next Jordan brand?
Tiger leaving Nike after 27 years marks the end of an era that could have been more successful than it already was; what limited the partnership and what to expect from the new venture Sun Day Red
Hello World, I am Tiger Woods
Nike is the biggest athletics brand in the world today, and much of its global success stemmed from its unprecedented partnership with Michael Jordan. Back in 1984, a modest running shoe company worth $25m (by contrast, Adidas was worth $1.26bn) convinced a young basketball prodigy, who had not yet played a single game in the NBA, to sign a groundbreaking contract with them: $2.5m over 5 years (doubling the next best sneaker deal at the time) plus 5% royalties on the profit of every sneaker sold. That deal made Nike and provided the blueprint for brand partnerships with the highest profile superstars in sport.
In 1998, after winning his 6th and final championship with the Bulls, Jordan retired for a second time, leaving a huge superstar vacuum for Nike and sports in general to fill. Enter Eldrick “Tiger” Woods, a man destined to dominate and revolutionize a sport like none other before him. While Jordan was destroying his competition in the 90s, a young Stanford golf phenom became the first (and still only) player to win three U.S. Amateur titles from 1994–96. His final round at the 1996 U.S. amateurs would wind up being the last time he stepped on a golf course without donning the famed Nike swoosh. By the time he turned pro after that U.S. Amateurs, Tiger was already the biggest name in the sport. He signed a 5-year $40m deal with Nike in 1996, the most lucrative endorsement deal for a pro athlete ever at the time. Ahead of his pro debut the iconic “Hello World” and “I am Tiger Woods” campaigns heralded his arrival, tapping into Tiger’s universal appeal and diverse background.
Needless to say, the hype around this kid was gargantuan. And boy oh boy did he deliver on the promise. In 1997, at just 21 years old, he already claimed his first major victory at the Masters. Though just calling it a win does not even come close to adequately describing the performance. He absolutely demoralized the competition, becoming the youngest winner of the tournament, breaking the scoring record at the Masters and winning by a record 12 strokes…12 strokes!! No athlete was more predestined to take up the mantle of Jordan and become the next global sporting icon. Best of all for Nike, they had him signed already and he perfectly came into frame just as Jordan was stepping out.
However, after a 27-year partnership, Tiger and Nike went their separate ways in February of this year. Tiger launched his new Sun Day Red brand with TaylorMade, while Nike is increasingly scaling down its Golf offering. How did one of the greatest and most lucrative athlete-brand partnerships end this way? Why does it feel like despite all the success of the partnership, it never really reached its peak potential? And, why did Nike Golf and the Tiger Woods brand never reach the heights of the Jordan brand, despite all the promise?
Building Nike Golf
Nike entered Golf in 1984 with a first modest line of shirts and shoes, However, it wasn’t until the signing of Tiger Woods in 1996 that Nike truly made waves in the golf world.
Tiger’s transition to Nike was gradual, as they only offered apparel and accessories initially, with him switching from Titleist to Nike balls in 2000 and adopting Nike clubs in 2002, following the release of their first designed clubs (except for his trusted Scotty Cameron putter, which he kept for most of his career). Nike Golf became its own division only in 2001 actually.
Although Nike only publicly disclosed revenues from its golf division between 2006 and 2017, insights from the former Nike Golf Director of Marketing reveal the significant impact Tiger had on the brand. In 1995, prior to Tiger’s involvement, Nike Golf generated $30 million in revenue. By 1998, this figure had surged to $300 million, underscoring Tiger’s transformative effect. By 2006, Nike Golf’s revenue soared to nearly $600 million, illustrating the remarkable growth catalysed by Tiger’s association with the brand.
Despite the highly publicized scandal surrounding Tiger’s personal life and subsequent revelations of infidelity, Nike Golf experienced only a modest decline in sales, which continued until 2012. This downturn was more likely influenced by Tiger’s extended absence from tournament play in 2009, following the scandal, and a performance slump until 2012. However, with Tiger’s return to his dominant form in 2013, Nike Golf’s revenues rebounded accordingly.
From 2015 onwards, Woods was injury riddled, with multiple back surgeries that kept him from competing much until 2018, which explains the stark dip in revenues until 2017. In 2017, Nike surprisingly announced it would exit the golf equipment business, and solely focus on apparel, shoes and accessories again. With that decision, they elected to bundle Nike Golf revenue together with other revenue items, and not disclose the unit’s revenue individually anymore. It is reasonable to infer that the revenues followed a similar downward trajectory following this strategic shift.
The cost of doing business
In 2001, Woods was up for his next Nike deal, and he could not have been in more demand. Coming off of the Tiger Slam, winning all four majors consecutively (2000 US Open, 2000 Open Championship, 2000 PGA Championship and 2001 Masters), nothing any player had ever done, Tiger signed another record-setting 5-year $100million deal. In 2006 he signed an 8-year deal with Nike estimated in the range of $160–320million, and his final 10-year Nike deal that recently expired he signed in 2013, valued at $200million.
Overall, Tiger made between $500–660million with his Nike deals, catapulting him all the way up to second place on the list of the highest-paid athletes of all-time, only behind Jordan.
Not following the Air Jordan playbook
With Tiger being arguably more dominant and revolutionary to his sport than Jordan was, and with him being an icon in a sport where the average spend per player is amongst the highest of any sport (expensive equipment, clothing and green fees), why did his endorsement not achieve the same level of cultural resonance and why did it not take off to the same extent?
One key factor is that Nike deviated from its successful playbook established with Michael Jordan and his iconic Air Jordan shoes. Unlike Jordan, who debuted the Air Jordan 1 in his first NBA season, Tiger did not receive his own signature shoe from Nike until 2013 with the release of the Nike Tiger Woods ’13 golf shoe (not quite as catchy as Air Jordan). The shoes found instant success, due to their innovative design, resembling running shoes rather than the traditional stiff golf shoes. It even got a highly coveted retro re-release last year for the 10-year anniversary of the shoe. I personally still wear my TW 13, even after 10 years, as I have not found a better feeling shoe to date. Despite initially attempting annual releases, Nike struggled to replicate the hype surrounding the TW 13 and eventually abandoned the concept.
Besides the lack of focus on signature shoes, Nike failed to leverage the success of its golf division into a broader lifestyle brand. There are multifaceted reasons for this, such as Nike’s focus on equipment and golf balls, which generate good revenue within the golf niche, but have no ability to translate to a broader audience. Furthermore, while golf polos and other gear are suitable for the golf course, they do not align with the everyday wardrobe of most individuals. Nike concentrated too heavily on creating golf-specific products without establishing a comprehensive lifestyle brand around them. Unlike smaller golf brands that successfully diversified their offerings in recent years, Nike’s lack of Tiger-branded merchandise and shoes that appealed to both golfers and casual consumers limited its expansion beyond the sport. The older golfing demographic also did not help in proliferating the brand outside of golf, but Tiger brought in so much new attention and diversity to the sport that this could and should have been overcome.
And finally, to put it gently, Tiger was not the most fashion-forward individual and could not excite non-golfers for his products. Unlike the “be like Mike” movement, nobody outside of golf really wanted to be like Tiger. This failure to transcend his sport’s niche audience prevented Nike from replicating the widespread success of the Jordan brand, which generated a staggering $6.59 billion in revenues in 2023, comprising 12.9% of Nike’s overall annual revenues ($51.22 billion).
Golf is enjoying a spurt in popularity since the pandemic, with golf participation in 2022 in the U.S. being at an all-time high 41.1million. It feels somewhat counterintuitive for Nike to take such a big step away from the sport now by not renewing the contract with Tiger. Tiger’s declining participation in tournaments due to a significant leg injury in 2021 undoubtedly influenced this decision. Additionally, Nike’s stringent policy of allocating no more than 10% of category revenue to athlete sponsorships likely factored into the calculation, especially considering the dwindling revenues from Nike Golf and existing endorsements with athletes like Rory McIlroy. It did still come as a surprise given Tiger is one of Nike founder Phil Knight’s favourite athletes and the fact that the Nike campus in Beaverton has a named building after him built in 2001, the Tiger Woods Conference Center.
While emulating the success of the Jordan brand is no small feat, Nike missed an opportunity to capitalize on Tiger’s iconic status and the high spending habits of golfers, particularly in the lucrative U.S. market. Tiger’s name transcends the sport of golf, much like Jordan’s, yet Nike failed to provide consumers with a comprehensive range of Tiger-branded products suitable for both on and off the golf course, as well as timely and impactful product releases, such as the annual Air Jordans.
Athlete led brands; Sun Day Red
Tiger Woods is now officially playing in Sun Day Red, a new apparel line within TaylorMade (where Tiger already has an equipment deal with since Nike left the equipment game in 2017). For those not deeply immersed in golf, the name Sun Day Red pays homage to Tiger’s iconic Sunday outfit — a red shirt, black pants, and black shoes — which he exclusively wears during the final round of tournaments. There is nothing more intimidating on a golf course than seeing Tiger showing up in Sunday red.
From the initial announcements it appears that Sun Day Red aims to address previous limitations of the Nike TW brand. They are focusing on generating apparel items that can be used on and off the course, becoming closer to a lifestyle brand than a purely golf focused one. The logo itself is already much more versatile to be used outside of golf than his prior TW logo with Nike (fun fact on the new logo: The tiger has 15 stripes to reflect the 15 majors Woods has won…may be awkward when he wins a 16th). It follows much closer to what recent successful golf brands in the business have done, like Good Good (YouTube creator driven), Bogey Boys (Macklemore’s golf lifestyle brand) or Random Golf Club (YouTube creator driven), being more lifestyle centric and being much more creator/athlete focused. Previously, it did feel much more like you were wearing Nike products and not Tiger Woods specific ones, which hopefully will change now with Sun Day Red.
In today’s creator-driven economy, big-name athletes no longer rely solely on major brand endorsements from the likes of Nike, leveraging their fame, personality, and following to build their own brands. Tiger joins a growing cohort of athletes venturing beyond traditional sport brand powerhouses, including Tom Brady (Nobull), Roger Federer (On Running), Lewis Hamilton (Tommy Hilfiger), Allyson Felix (Saysh), and David Beckham (House 99), to name a few. It is difficult for the likes of Nike to build and devote sufficient resources to any individual in the hopes of building another Jordan brand, though they had the perfect breeding ground and conditions with Tiger. Athletes are seeking opportunities that enable them to build their personal brands more and reap larger rewards outside of endorsement deals from growing equity stakes or revenue participation.
While we may never witness anything as big as the Jordan brand again, the rise of personality-driven brands promises a diverse landscape bridging sports and lifestyle. Sun Day Red’s evolution will be particularly intriguing, given golf’s evolving dress code and Tiger’s enduring influence on the game. It will be particularly interesting to see how much the best golfer of all-time can still move the needle and how the demand for Sun Day Red will shape out (besides myself, as I will definitely be a sucker who cannot resist buying something from the first drop).
Tiger’s Dominance in numbers
For this piece’s random fact, I thought it fitting to include some figures around Tiger, as many may not actually be aware of how ridiculously dominant he was at his peak, enjoy.
Best score to par in majors 1997–2009 (min. 70 rounds): Tiger Woods: -134, Phil Mickelson: +99 (the only one within 250 strokes of Tiger), Ernie Els: +118
In a stretch from the 1999 Deutsche Bank through the 2001 Memorial, Tiger in official worldwide events had 46 starts, winning 23 (5 of which were majors). This extraordinary 2-year stretch alone would be a top-15 career all-time in golf
In the last 60 years, there are 3 instances of a player winning 5 (or more) PGA Tour starts in a row. They belong to: Tiger Woods (7), Tiger Woods (6) and Tiger Woods (5)
Tiger Woods is the only player currently under the age of 50 with 25 or more PGA Tour wins. He reached that goal already at 25 years of age in 2001
“The greatest performance in golf history” is considered Tiger’s 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where he won by an inconceivable 15 strokes (still the record to date)
Tiger’s Scotty Cameron putter that he won 14 of his 15 majors with, was auctioned off for $267,865.20 in 2023 and is arguable one of the most important sporting items of all time
It was a hell of a round, Tiger.
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